He also used the aliases Shōji Shirō (庄司史郎), Asabuki Kaoru (朝吹薫), and Fujiwara Hideo (藤原英夫) in his early recording career.

His father was an employee of the South Manchuria Railway, and his parents moved to Manchukuo, leaving him behind in Japan to be raised by his grandmother, who introduced him to the violin.

His main work at the South Manchurian Railways was on unionization; however, his highly leftist viewpoints alienated both his managers and the Imperial Japanese Army, and he found himself sidelined to a position in a library.

After seven years in Manchukuo, he returned to Japan, where his brother was running a Chinese restaurant near Waseda University.

[4] From 1934 to 1936, the young actress Hideko Takamine and her mother lived with Shōji, although she refused his offer to formally adopt her.